designtipsmonthly

I read an article recently about what the optimum number of choices or options were for any given decision. What would you guess - maybe I'll do a poll. Turns out, according to this article, that the optimum number is about 6-8. More will turn out to be counter productive, forcing our brains to seize up and fewer tend to leave us wanting more. Bear in mind, this is for choices in general, like say for the number of cars you may want to look at before making a buying decision, or clothing. Of course, there's always the exception. Love at first site, just gotta have it, that kind of thing, but for the most part we like options. So what's my point?

I think design's a little different. When designing something for a client it is important to offer choices, but not the 6-8 mentioned above. Why? If it's good for cars and clothing, why not design? I'd say it's because we approach the design process a little differently. It's a customized process from beginning to end, so the need for a wide variety of choices isn't as great. It's a more focused approach. Most designers, myself included, use a process of discovery to learn about what's needed to fulfill our client's goals. Some call it a creative brief, that the client provides, detailing as much as they can tell us about their needs. Others approach it a little differently, using a questionnaire to ferret out the answers to key questions, ultimately arriving at a good understanding of what's needed. The more specific this process is, the fewer options will be needed to hit the nail on the head, so to speak. I've heard of other designers (and had this experience myself) who have come up with perfect solutions on the first try. This can be hard for some clients to accept, but if you think about it, it makes a lot of sense, speaking to the amount of experience a designer may have. Sometimes it's luck, but usually experience.

So is there an optimum number of solutions to offer a client? When I started out in design, most designers were offering three solutions, then narrowing down to a final solution through an iterative process. Now, more often than not, I offer two solutions and sometimes, more frequently now, only one. It's important to be open to client input, so I will also offer two more solutions if the first two don't cut it. If you find yourself in a situation where this is happening, I'd suggest, at this point, that if the second two solutions still aren't working, that critical information has been overlooked or left out of the process, causing the designer to miss the target. So the optimum number of solutions to a design problem will vary depending on the experience of the designer and the completeness of the information or understanding of what is needed, in my opinion.

Seriously! We all like tips and since I've been in business for twelve years and working as a designer for a few years longer than that, I thought it would be a good time to start sharing some of my collection of tips, short cuts and other valuable information with anyone who might be interested. So thanks for stopping in and I will try to make it worth your while.